For the first of our Sunday book reviews, I’m going to start with what I have long considered to be one of the most important books for anyone with a website – and this applies to blogs, online shops, and the rest too – anyone marketing online would do well to read this book.

“A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” – now as WordPress “users”, you may not think this quite applies to you, however it does. When it comes to WordPress themes (the design) we are tempted with plenty of pretty/scary/all-dancing/action-packed designs, as well as plenty that are pleasing to the eye and useful to you and your visitors. Everyone with a web presence, be that a website or a blog, needs to consider the people you want visiting (and subsequently doing what you want them to do – come back, get in touch, subscribe, buy…). Is that cool, brooding design really going to encourage your ideal customers?

Don’t Make Me Think is a book I’ve recommended to clients and anyone who will listen since it was first published a decade or so ago. Now in its second edition, Steve Krug‘s take on keeping it simple is easy to read and packed with solid advice that everyone, in my opinion, should heed. And this is timeless stuff – even this edition is nearly 5 years old, but it continues to be relevant and a must-read, even for those of us working with WordPress. The sound basis that this gives you when considering usability is essential when choosing your theme and the various widgets and plugins available, and how you present your content.

So this is one of those JDI, no-brainer books if you want your website/blog to do what you expect of it! (and if you don’t really know that, have a chat with Babs and she’ll point you to some useful advice).

How does your WordPress website or blog look on your visitor’s screen? Do you know how your site looks on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, on a PC or a Mac – it is something worth checking.

Cross-browser compatibility has always been an important consideration and until we are all using the same browser on the same machine, it always will be – though things do seem to be settling down more now and we have fewer headaches than in the days of Netscape vs Explorer, for instance. Good web designers know to check that their work looks good across all browsers as standard, but as more of you are enabled to create your own websites, you also want to know how to check your cross-browser compatibility.

Thankfully there are tools available to us – of course there are! I tested the Blogmistress site at BrowserShots and these are some of the results:

Try it out on your website, just to be sure… (and don’t panic if things don’t look as they should – that happens and may only need a small code change to have you cross-browser compatible).

Another option, if you have frequent tests to carry out, might be CrossBrowserTesting – you can run their free trial before committing to that level of service.

Now while you’re about it, you’d may as well consider your site for usability and accessibility – both are as important as ever and we can become complacent about such, especially those of us using WordPress and relying on the system to comply with certain standards.

Usability is something that you really want real people (as opposed to pretend people!) test out for you. If you want us to cast an eye over your site, drop an email to hello@blogmistress.com and we’ll do that for you – we’ve considered usability to be an essential consideration for every website we’ve worked with. If you want to know more about this, I’d personally recommend the book Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug – still the most easy to read, common-sense book for everyone with a website of any kind.

Accessibility may not be as hot a topic as it was a few years ago, but is still essential, and really warrants a whole blog post of its own (as indeed does Usability). To get an idea about it all though, you’d do well to visit the RNIB’s guidelines – they know what their members need and want!

There are tools available at W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative, but that can become overwhelming and automated tools do have to be considered from a human perspective too.

And you have a useful post tomorrow from Sarah on accessibility options that you can implement with relative ease – so pop back and take a look at that, or subscribe so you don’t miss it!